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javamultithreadingcollectionsunmodifiable

Does the unmodifiable wrapper for java collections make them thread safe?

I need to make an ArrayList of ArrayLists thread safe. I also cannot have the client making changes to the collection. Will the unmodifiable wrapper make it thread safe or do I need two wrappers on the collection?

Solution

  • It depends. The wrapper will only prevent changes to the collection it wraps, not to the objects in the collection. If you have an ArrayList of ArrayLists, the global List as well as each of its element Lists need to be wrapped separately, and you may also have to do something for the contents of those lists. Finally, you have to make sure that the original list objects are not changed, since the wrapper only prevents changes through the wrapper reference, not to the original object.

    You do NOT need the synchronized wrapper in this case.